Jump to full article: AP, 2008-03-28
Intro: People can be refused service or asked to leave Austin restaurants and bars for smoking, an appeals court announced Friday in a ruling upholding the city's smoking ban.
Although a federal judge had ruled some aspects of the ban were too vague, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans disagreed in a ruling Thursday.
The city's ban as approved by voters in 2005 listed five steps businesses had to comply with, including the posting of no-smoking signs and removal of ashtrays; asking smokers to extinguish their cigarette or cigars; refusing service to smokers; and asking smokers to leave.
But a judge in 2006 found the law's provisions about asking smokers to leave and refusing service unconstitutionally vague.
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